Synopsis

The best-known of Shirley Jackson's novels and a major inspiration for writers like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, The Haunting of Hill House is a chilling story of the power of fear.

'Shirley Jackson's stories are among the most terrifying ever written' Donna Tartt, author of The Goldfinch and The Secret History

Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely assistant; Luke, the future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past. As they begin to cope with horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead. For Hill House is gathering its powers - and soon it will choose one of them to make its own. Twice filmed as The Haunting, and the inspiration for a new 10-part Netflix series, The Haunting of Hill House is a powerful work of slow-burning psychological horror.

Shirley Jackson was born in California in 1916. When her short story The Lottery was first published in the New Yorker in 1948, readers were so horrified they sent her hate mail; it has since become one of the most iconic American stories of all time. Her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was published in the same year and was followed by five more: Hangsaman, The Bird's Nest, The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, widely seen as her masterpiece. Shirley Jackson died in her sleep at the age of 48.

If you enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House, you might like Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'An amazing writer ... If you haven't read her you have missed out on something marvellous' Neil Gaiman

'As nearly perfect a haunted-house tale as I have ever read' Stephen King

'The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable' A. M. Homes

'Shirley Jackson is one of those highly idiosyncratic, inimitable writers...whose work exerts an enduring spell' Joyce Carol Oates

Shirley Jackson was born in California in 1916. When her short story The Lottery was first published in the New Yorker in 1948, readers were so horrified they sent her hate mail; it has since become one of the most iconic American stories of all time. Her first novel, The Road Through the Wall, was published in the same year and was followed by Hangsaman, The Bird's Nest, The Sundial, The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, widely seen as her masterpiece. In addition to her dark, brilliant novels, she wrote lightly fictionalized magazine pieces about family life with her four children and her husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. Shirley Jackson died in 1965.

Author Choice

A novel very popular in its day, but one that is less well known to the general reader than it deserves to be. Four characters arrive at the rambling, unkempt, threatening Hill House: Dr Montague is a scholar of the occult, looking for evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his light-hearted assistant; Luke, adventurous and curious, who is due to inherit the estate; and Eleanor, a solitary and fragile young woman with secrets in her past. Immediately, they are beset with inexplicable, chilling occurrences, beyond their control and imagination and experience. Hill House itself appears to be alive and gathering strength, waiting to claim one of them as its own. Chilling, Stephen King described it as one of the finest horror novels of the late 20th century.

Kate Mosse - 08/09/2014

Staff Choice

Jackson's fifth novel is an unnerving piece that casts a spell on its readers as well as its characters. Dr Montague assembles a group of people whose lives have been touched by the paranormal to stay at the eponymous Hill House, a building with a morbid history and a mind of its own. Our narrator, Eleanor Vance, seems to have a close connection to the house, and begins to succumb to its enticing powers. The horror is insidious, internal and consuming.

Jay, Birmingham

Charing Cross Rd Bookshop - 07/12/2018

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